| A pizza champ sets up shop in Old Town
Gallucci, with pies from a champion member of the U.S. Pizza Team is prepping to bring traditional Neapolitan pies to Old Town, in the 1551 N. Wells space occupied until November by Dinotto. The pizzeria should open in mid-January, just south of North and Wells.
Dinotto also served pizza, but chef Gianni Gallucci will bring his own style to the space. “I’m 33, coming off a couple big wins and pizza championships worldwide,” he said. “It’s now time for me to make my name.”
Workers are building a wood-burning oven on site, flying in employees from Italian manufacturer Marra Forni to custom-fit it into the restaurant’s tight quarters.
His accolades include the 2017 Caputo Cup, which takes places annually at the Pizza & Pasta Northeast convention. He topped his winning pie with buffalo ricotta with black truffles, prosciutto di Parma, red piennolo del Vesuvio, and summer black truffle. He intends to serve pizzas with white and black truffles, as the ingredients are seasonally available.
He described his style as traditional, and competed in the Pizza Napoletana STG category (the Italian abbreviation translates English to “Traditional Specialty Guaranteed”). He bristles at attempts to modernize the style in ways that, in his view, cheapen the tradition. For Gallucci, that includes “neo Neapolitan” pizzerias that produce crispier crusts aimed to pander to American tastes.
Gallucci wants to hook new customers with his adherence to quality and tradition. Many Americans don’t know what true Neapolitan pizza tastes like because “they’ve been lied to and cheated” by pizzerias serving less-than-authentic food, Gallucci said.